There is a misconception in workplace that once a woman becomes a mother, she won’t be up for the challenges need-in for career advancement or they simply assume that she couldn’t devote the time, like she used to. Hence, this conception is ‘maternal wall’ for professionals, after being a mother. And maternal wall is all about the discrimination that a woman faces post maternity, if she decides to join in the work force. There are many examples of discrimination to these working mothers around the world; such as increasing pay gap between women and men after female employees come back from maternity leave and mothers being less likely to be hired for jobs and more likely to experience demotions and even likely to get fired.
However, this scenario can be changed with right set of attitude toward women, who want to continue their career post maternity. Those who are also the mothers should be the one to decide whether to devote their time for the child by staying at home, or to join the workforce right after post maternity. It should be their call, instead of the decision made out of fear on what the people from the society and workplace would think about their choice.
No cure-all
Being a mother is one of the best experiences that a woman can have in her lifetime. Motherhood in itself is a challenging time in a person’s life and the existing maternal wall in the professional field could trigger fear in an ambitious career woman.
And in this episode of ‘Here’s Why’ Srishti Shah, a working mother shares her experience on what maternal wall has made her do and how being a mother has helped her to be committed at work even more intensely.
